Marissa Mayer and The Color Purple

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

I was at, of all places, Facebook when I heard that Marissa Mayer was Yahoo’s new CEO. (The person who broke the news to me, a former prominent Googler, almost burst with joy upon realizing that I hadn’t heard yet. “I can’t believe I’m the one who gets to tell you this!” said that FB’er.)

Anyone who has read IN THE PLEX knows that Marissa was a key figure at Google — and also an important source for me. It’s her quote about Google and Montessori that’s on the back cover of the book. She was extremely generous with her time, starting on the world-spanning Associate Product Manager (APM) trip that was the inspiration for the book. (I also had interviewed her numerous times for Newsweek.) During my research I not only continued interviewing her for background on the company, but what was happening at the moment. And she allowed me to observe some meetings and even her office hours. So I have a pretty good idea how she works and makes decisions.

With that in mind, I think that Yahoo was smart to hire her. I explain why in this post for Wired.com.

I also pointed out that her leadership of the APM program could be a “secret weapon” in rebuilding Yahoo.